my computer starts up but wont boot to where i can use it

[DarkSlade]

Hey guys im having issues with booting up my computer.

Idk wats wrong i turn it on and it show the manufactures name then it goes to a black screen with a white blinking cursosr in the left corner idk whats wrong ive tried booting with no devices other than my HDD and im still having problems.

I need my computer can someone help me

 

[Superheat]

Can you post your systems specs? Any recent changes to your system before this problem started? Post more detail to your problem. Are you getting any BIOS beeps?

 

[DarkSlade]

I added a new hardrive with data from another computer and i installed it when the computer was running because it kept trying to master capabilities from my main HDD and then it just stopped working like after a week. My computer is a compac Pesario made for windows me but im running xp home edition not shure what version.

 

[Superheat]

DarkSlade

Your computer screen going black at startup off of main drive indicates you may have a disk error. I would first try running a chkdsk from recovery console using your win xp dsk of your primary hard drive. You will have to set bios to boot from cd to do this. You can search google for step by step procedure to run chkdsk from windows cd. This will usually fix any bad data on your primary hard disk. As to your drive from other computer is sounds like it is dead. It may have been on way out or hooking it up on fly may have damaged it, this happened to a friend. Does this drive spin up at all? Was the drive jumper set to slave before hookup?

I like having an external usb drive enclosure can be found for $29 to have a method to make use of old drives or for working on others putes to backup their data. They come in handy and a hard drive can be changed out with them in less than a minute. I have two on my system mainly used for hard drive recovery and backups of my own hard drives. I believe thermaltake makes em and a few other companies. It is a cheap way to make use of any old drives laying around. They come in handy.

 

[Superheat]

Here is a link to run recovery console from cd. You would use commands like chkdsk /r, you may also have to run fixboot if chkdsk does not work.

Link here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307654

A great site for free support is: http://www.geekstogo.com/forum/forums.html All free support and questions are answered very fast on their forums page my many computer pros. They can help you solve any computer related problem very quickly. The have top notch support also for malware removal! Best tech forum I have found to date.